The best summary I’ve read so far on the success of the Olympic Transportation Plan is here in re:place, by John Calimente.
Original thought:
One group that was conspicuous by its presence: families (and extended families).
I had never thought about how few families I normally see on transit. Transit in Metro Vancouver is mainly about singles and couples. Complete family groups are a relative rarity. This is one issue that TransLink needs to look at. From a cost and convenience perspective, driving a vehicle is still cheaper and easier that buying tickets for all family members.
Hopefully now we’ll at least see more families taking the SkyTrain when they head downtown, but the cost of a using a vehicle will have to increase dramatically before we see any appreciable increase in families on transit. There’s now a group called TripEd that wants to reduce the cost of field trips taken by transit. Perhaps there could be a family pass to encourage families to take transit once in a while?
It’s easier than that, really. On Sundays and holidays, if you have a valid pass, you can already take one adult and up to four children with you on the train. So if you commute alone by transit on weekdays, you can take your family free on Sundays/holidays.
Extend that simple plan to Saturdays too (and maybe evenings after 6:30pm? make it like the zone system? I don’t know, would be interesting to see a study) and suddenly it makes great financial sense to have the family on the SkyTrain.